Six Adult Sites That Held Out Until the End Surrender... Over 8,000 Illegal Filming Materials Deleted

Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center, 4 Years of Deletion Requests
Application of Laws by Overseas Server Countries...Strong Response Announced
8,296 Child and Adolescent Sexual Exploitation Videos Deleted

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Six adult websites that had refused to delete illegally filmed victim videos for nearly four years have finally removed over 8,000 videos.

On the 28th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced that it had successfully led the deletion of a total of 8,296 victim videos, including child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials, from six adult websites that had long refused deletion requests from the Digital Sexual Crime Victim Support Center (DiSeong Center).

These adult websites, which hosted servers overseas to evade domestic legal jurisdiction and distributed illegally filmed victim videos, had consistently ignored deletion requests from the DiSeong Center since April 2018. They even operated a separate category called "Korean" to further exacerbate digital sexual crime victimization.

The DiSeong Center recently conveyed a strong response policy and firmly requested video deletion based on legal advice from lawyers in the countries where the adult sites’ servers are located, regarding illegally filmed victim videos related to ongoing investigations.

As a result, the sites deleted 8,296 victim videos over four days from the 20th to the 23rd. This accounts for 60.7% of the 13,670 videos the DiSeong Center requested to be deleted. Including the 4,571 videos previously removed, 94.1% of the illegally filmed victim videos have been deleted.

The DiSeong Center proactively inspects and supports the deletion of victim videos to actively protect children and adolescents. From January to October this year, 47,865 victim videos were deleted, an 18% increase compared to last year’s 40,711.

Additionally, the DiSeong Center has formed a dedicated team of nine members to respond to the L sexual exploitation case, similar to the second n-bunbang case, and has established a cooperative system with related organizations such as the Korea Communications Commission and the National Police Agency for close collaboration. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family also plans to advance the deletion support system for the prompt removal of victim videos and to provide efficient deletion support through linkage and cooperation with local government support agencies.

According to the ‘2020 Trends and Analysis of Child and Adolescent Sexual Crime Occurrences,’ the rate of imprisonment sentences for crimes producing child and adolescent sexual exploitation materials increased from 2.0% in 2014 to 53.9% in 2020, and the rate of suspended sentences also rose from 24.0% to 46.1% during the same period. However, the rate of fines, which was as high as 72.0% in 2014, was eliminated by legal amendments, resulting in no fines being imposed in 2020.

Kim Hyun-sook, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, stated, “Digital sexual crimes are serious offenses that destroy an individual’s dignity, and strict punishment considering the victim’s perspective and public expectations is necessary,” and emphasized, “We will strengthen cooperation with related agencies such as the Ministry of Justice to punish perpetrators and support victims.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.